Canberra - October 22, 23

 October 22, Wednesday

    Today, we got our rental car, a Cupra Formenter, a Spanish car which is part of Volkswagon.  Mark drove out of the capital city without difficulty, despite having to drive on the left and in city traffic.

 

  We drove about 3 hours to Canberra, highway the entire way. We left Sydney which was going to be well over 90 degrees and arrived in Canberra in the rain where it is 72 degrees. 

     There were definitely things to learn about the car - such as how to turn off the back windshield wiper! Others included - learning to set the cruise control, regulate the temperature and to hook up our phones for directions. 

     We stopped at a small rest area en route to stop and learn a few things about the car and got a hot dog and a sandwich from a food truck.

   

Hotel Garden

   We are at Avenue Hotel in Canberra, a really nice hotel. We have parking and breakfast included, a bonus. 

   

Mmmm....oysters!

    As luck would have it, the hotel was having half-price oysters, so we split a dozen which cost about $15.00 U.S. They were huge and delicious. We followed that with duck and cilantro spring rolls, among the best we've ever tasted.

October 23. 

        We started our day with the hotel buffet breakfast which is included in the price of the room. It far exceeded our expectations with a huge array of food, including smoke salmon, a favorite of Barbara's and made-to-order eggs which Mark enjoys. The breakfast was so hearty that we did not get lunch. 

     

Gauguin - We just finished "Wild Thing" - biography of Gauguin

   We spent a good part of the day at the National Art Gallery of Australia, a drive of about 5 kilometers. The museum honors our handicap placard with free parking which was convenient. The beautiful museum is right on Lake Burley-Griffin which is in the heart of this gorgeous capital city with a population of just over half-a-million. There are few high rises, lots of parks. 

          We enjoyed the very much as the photos will attest. A real surprise was the huge display of concert posters from San Francisco from the 1970's/80's. Familiar names - The Grateful Dead, Jimmy Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Otis Redding and James Cotton Blues Band.

          Iced coffee in the museum provided a break and then we wandered out into the sculpture garden and strolled on Lake Burley-Griffin. How amazing to have a large lake in the center of the city where people were biking, strolling and sailing.

         We went back to the hotel restaurant tonight (Marble and Grain), something we rarely do, but the food is just that good.

         Mark had braised lamb and Barbara had a pear, fig, and onion tart - very unusual as the crust was unlike any she'd ever had.